Potential M - advice appreciated

[CornishRob]

I would say it's someone who purchased a sports car and got it's running in service done as quickly as possible so they could enjoy what they purchased.

I don't think you should try and over think it too much in terms of guessing how it's been driven! Worst case it's been thrashed every day of its life from cold, but buying second hand is always a risk, so either buy new or take the risk! Buying from a dealer or private will make no odds on this!

 

[Ninarvana]

I pretty much line up with Steven's opinion on all things purchasing - having done this incredibly lengthly task when finding mine ... in the end i settled on a forum car.

Personally - i'd walk from that one, there's too much unknown with 4 years no servicing, even if it had sat garaged it would need servicing.

If the price was much lower, i'd consider entertaining a chat with Stuart @ ML and see what he says before bothering to look at it. I'd then factor in no Insp2 into the cost and have it done immediately to improve the outlook of the logbook.

Resale will be somewhat an issue but there's always someone out there .. again, one to factor into the price. 16k is a good price if the car didn't have the service blip and everything else checks out, id be knocking insp2 cost + maybe warantee money off it to consider purchase, personally.

Alternatively - you could get them to put it in for Insp2, then you walk away with some BMW backing (not that i trust BMW main dealers and Insp2's) :/

I'm going to have a chat to Stuart anyway in the am before pulling the plug completely.
I don't trust BMW tbh, in that I'd rather use ML but the car is located in Birmingham so I can't expect the chap to trek down for that sake.

It's becoming damn frustrating, seems like the Ruby's I've seen for sale haven't been cared for so well. It's a very sad moment and makes you wonder just how many of these cars have actually been cared for by enthusiasts...

 

[Ninarvana]

If the Inspection 1 was in 2009, it has had an oil service since then, what date was that on?

I left the dates BMW gave me in my drawer at work so would need to check on that tomorrow, I believe it was around the May mark off the top of my head.

 

[srhutch]

Although the miles will show unitl next inspection, there is also the clock that is displayed to show when the brake fluid should be changed, so this must have been ignored.

 

[jimmybell]

There was a Ruby Black one at hexagon about a year ago - had done 6k miles or something silly and was spotless - shame Hexagon had it priced at ~£sillymoney


Hold out - you'll find your perfect one eventually Plus more waiting = more saving = more spare money for mods, fuel and forum meets!

 

[Ninarvana]

Although the miles will show unitl next inspection, there is also the clock that is displayed to show when the brake fluid should be changed, so this must have been ignored.

Is that so... Well that is a valid point that can't be overlooked then. My car works differently as it's not inspection based, I am given both a date/mileage countdown however the required items are not grouped, are individual/condition based.

 

[Ninarvana]

There was a Ruby Black one at hexagon about a year ago - had done 6k miles or something silly and was spotless - shame Hexagon had it priced at ~£sillymoney


Hold out - you'll find your perfect one eventually Plus more waiting = more saving = more spare money for mods, fuel and forum meets!

In hoping

I enquired about the 20K odd one that was for sale at as you put it, silly money! That car wasn't sound either & Hexagon even admitted to denting it in the showroom, they are such a weird bunch! They wouldn't agree to a test drive until a price had been finalised.

 

[Wondermike]

Sorry Nina - May 2010 is written in the service book, I must have missed that plus I think I thought it was still 2013 :slaphead:

So it did 32k in 3 years and then only 9k in the next four years, did the seller have an explanation for that?

 

[Ninarvana]

Sorry Nina - May 2010 is written in the service book, I must have missed that plus I think I thought it was still 2013 :slaphead:

So it did 32k in 3 years and then only 9k in the next four years, did the seller have an explanation for that?

I haven't yet asked why the there has been a lack of mileage... He does seem to have two other BM's on the driveway and his reason for selling was due to purchasing an M5.

 

[jimmybell]

oh really? lol it did look nice when i went to look at it - but yeah, they're a pain in the ass and the sales guy had a pretty negative opinion of owners forums - primarily because they get ripped for their valuations on here so much. "The forums don't understand the true value of these collectors items" and other bs about their cars being special etc.

One thing i did notice is instead of polish and wax they seemed to use vegetable oil or something - was greasy to touch :<

 

[Ninarvana]

oh really? lol it did look nice when i went to look at it - but yeah, they're a pain in the ass and the sales guy had a pretty negative opinion of owners forums - primarily because they get ripped for their valuations on here so much. "The forums don't understand the true value of these collectors items" and other bs about their cars being special etc.

One thing i did notice is instead of polish and wax they seemed to use vegetable oil or something - was greasy to touch :<

Hah, they would say that! I bet if forums sung their praises, price or customer service wise they wouldn't have such a negative opinion. When did you take a look at that one out of interest?

Weird, well they are 'rolling in it' down there! :wink:

 

[Wondermike]

I haven't yet asked why the there has been a lack of mileage... He does seem to have two other BM's on the driveway and his reason for selling was due to purchasing an M5.

Suppose that sounds reasonable.

I would pass on this one I think. There will be others and even if they aren't 100% either you will be closer to an E9x M3 at the same time and maybe go straight to that.

 

[jimmybell]

When did you take a look at that one out of interest?

Must of been pretty much 1 year ago - last april i expect. I bought mine within a month of looking at it. Was just interested in seeing what was considered a good example, and i didn't exactly fall in love with the ones in Chiswick BMW either.

 

[Ninarvana]

When did you take a look at that one out of interest?

Must of been pretty much 1 year ago - last april i expect. I bought mine within a month of looking at it. Was just interested in seeing what was considered a good example, and i didn't exactly fall in love with the ones in Chiswick BMW either.

I enquired around September time I believe it was so they certainly had that car sitting around for some time which goes with the territory considering their prices... It finally disappeared a month or two ago...

That Chiswick branch seem to have M's pop up now and again but it seems to follow an all familiar tune of whether or not to trust a main dealer...

 

[Ninarvana]

I haven't yet asked why the there has been a lack of mileage... He does seem to have two other BM's on the driveway and his reason for selling was due to purchasing an M5.

Suppose that sounds reasonable.

I would pass on this one I think. There will be others and even if they aren't 100% either you will be closer to an E9x M3 at the same time and maybe go straight to that.

The Z love affair has been un-requited for a number of years, I'd hate to miss out on one. The M3 would be nice 'down the line'

 

[exdos]

Ninarvana,

Why don't you try to bag yourself a bargain here? The only snag to this car is the lack of oil change at 2 year intervals, otherwise it's a one owner car (unusual for a car of this age), and from the photos, the owner has a decent well maintained house so the car is unlikely to have been neglected. Sure, it would be better if the servicing was bang on, and being realistic, it is doubtful if this will have done any real damage to the engine. HOWEVER, this gives you something to negotiate with against the seller. If you tell the seller that the lack of proper servicing will permanently blight the resale of the car and that the cost of an impending service also needs to be done, plus Parker's Guide ( http://www.parkers.co.uk/) shows the car is over-priced, then if it doesn't sell privately, then he'll get about £11,500 for it as a part-ex. If you could negotiate to buy the car for £14,500 would you buy it?

 

[Ninarvana]

Ninarvana,

Why don't you try to bag yourself a bargain here? The only snag to this car is the lack of oil change at 2 year intervals, otherwise it's a one owner car (unusual for a car of this age), and from the photos, the owner has a decent well maintained house so the car is unlikely to have been neglected. Sure, it would be better if the servicing was bang on, and being realistic, it is doubtful if this will have done any real damage to the engine. HOWEVER, this gives you something to negotiate with against the seller. If you tell the seller that the lack of proper servicing will permanently blight the resale of the car and that the cost of an impending service also needs to be done, plus Parker's Guide ( http://www.parkers.co.uk/) shows the car is over-priced, then if it doesn't sell privately, then he'll get about £11,500 for it as a part-ex. If you could negotiate to buy the car for £14,500 would you buy it?

You make an interesting case Exdos... Snagging a bargain is all well and good but I don't want this issue to put a bleak forecast on re-sale for me. However if I went on to maintain the service schedule correctly and thus (fingers crossed) it showing there were no further issues with the car, I would surmise in time this would not impede re-sale?...

 

[exdos]

You make an interesting case Exdos... Snagging a bargain is all well and good but I don't want this issue to put a bleak forecast on re-sale for me. However if I went on to maintain the service schedule correctly and thus (fingers crossed) it showing there were no further issues with the car, I would surmise in time this would not impede re-sale?...

I do try to be helpful.

If you can bag a bargain it shouldn't really affect your resale of the car if you allow for the fact that you bought at a bargain price, you simply pass the bargain on to the next buyer. If you were to run the car for a good while after purchase, you can show that the lack of a 2 year oil change hasn't materially affected the integrity of the car so you can partially erase the servicing blip.

As a further bargaining point, if the car hasn't been MOTd for a while, ask the seller to MOT the car at a MOT station (that only does MOTs), because the present MOT will pick out many of the problems that a car might suffer: i.e. it's a cheap way of getting an inspection done.

 

[Ninarvana]

I had a good chat with Stuart @ ML and he was very helpful... One major issue I realized I had overlooked after our chat was the brake fluid... At the last oil service 4 years ago, the brake fluid wasn't changed which means it hasn't been changed since 2009 but more importantly, that was 20K miles ago! I can't justify that and so I'm going to walk from this one. If it had had the brake done at the last service as well, I would have taken a look but with all this combined I can't ignore the potential issues down the line... Major :thumbsdown:

 

[DPG]

The right one will turn up Nina